Sharp and Foxconn: NYT (Mar 4)

choi

Jonathan Soble, A Bet on the Homeland Backfire; Missteps in Japan Put Sharp Behind in the Electronics Race. New York Times, Mar 3, 2016.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/0 ... sharp-stumbles.html

Quotation in the window of print: The company is now mired in losses and its future is in doubt.

Quote:

(a) "Mr [Terry] Gou, of Foxconn, has made vague promises to protect jobs at Sharp, which employs about 20,000 people in Japan and thousands more worldwide. Foxconn also says it does not plan to break up Sharp.

"The Innovation Network Corporation had different plans. In 2012, it combined LCD businesses it purchased from Toshiba, Hitachi and Sony into a new company, Japan Display. The company has struggled, and its backers hoped that adding Sharp’s production volume would make it more competitive. The network corporation was also negotiating with Toshiba to have Sharp sell Toshiba its home appliances division.

"The fund offered to invest about $2.7 billion but said the real value was larger because it could use its influence with Japanese banks to secure additional financial support.

"Yet the banks appear to favor Foxconn. Two members of Sharp’s board installed by the electronics company’s biggest lenders, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ and Mizuho Corporate Bank, supported Foxconn’s offer. 'The banks lent too much money'

(b) " 'Sharp’s technology is not essential to Japan’s industrial structure today,' said a senior Abe administration official, who asked not to be named to discuss a private business matter. 'If it was, Japanese companies would have put up money to buy it.'

My comment:
(a) To date, NYTimes has not translated this report, and I do not think it will. Fortunately the English in the report is simple.
(b) I have a hard time understanding what is good about Sharp. This report talks about liquid-crystal displays, or LCDs "became commoditized." -- most likely for giant panels also. But almost no news report mentions organic light-emitting diode (OLED), when they discuss Sharp --suggesting Sharp might not have the technology.
(c) Kameyama, Mie  三重県 亀山市
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kameyama,_Mie
(Sharp Corporation has been operating one of the world's largest LCD factories in the city since 2004)
(d) There is no need to read the rest.